Ford’s Goal to Reduce Water Use by 2015

Ford Motor Company announced recently that it has a new goal in its quest to reduce the water it takes to build a car. By 2015, the company will cut its water consumption by 30%.

Now, this might not sound like an aggressive number. However, Ford has already taken great strides in cutting its water use; over the past 10 years, they’ve cut their global water use by 62%. That’s an enormous reduction! It adds up to 10.5 billion gallons of water.

The company released a nifty graphic that shows what 10.5 billion gallons of water looks like:

This new goal will make further cuts. If they reach their goal, then it will take 3.5 cubic meters to create a car, down from 9.5 in 2000.

According to Green Biz, Ford doesn’t have much choice in their reduction of water. Many of their factories are in water stressed regions, such as Mexico. Using a ton of water to build cars just isn’t an option in these areas. Any efforts to cut back on water use makes a big difference here, especially if droughts get worse (which many scientists are predicting they will, as our climate gets more extreme).

What’s amazing is that Ford doesn’t use any potable water in its plants to build cars. The only potable water that’s used is for human use. The factories have an on-site wastewater treatment plant that cleans and recycles 80% of the water that’s used. The rest is used for irrigation around the factory.

I can only applaud Ford’s steps to reduce their water footprint. The company already has the largest living roof in the world, which sits on top of one of their factories in my home state of Michigan. This new goal can only do good in the areas where their factories are located.